Recycling Center Takes Shape On Paper

January 01, 1991|By DAVID RISSER Staff Writer

Specifications for a high-tech regional recycling center to be built in York County by mid-1992 are almost complete, according to the leader of the regional trash authority for Peninsula and Middle Peninsula localities.

The specifications, which are being proofread, will be sent to interested bidders and released publicly in about two weeks, according to Frank H. Miller Jr., executive director of the Virginia Peninsulas Public Service Authority.

The authority is still negotiating with York County officials to buy about six acres at the county's 93-acre landfill on Goodwin Neck Road.

Miller said the two sides are "pretty close" to an agreement, but that a contract will not be signed until authority and county officials know who will build and operate the facility.

Bids from companies interested in operating the center should be received 45 to 60 days after the specifications are released, said Miller, who has a list of more than 30 firms he says are capable of running the facility.

The center, which will process approximately 36,000 tons of recyclable material per year when it opens, is expected to cost about $4 million, including the cost of the land, Miller said.

The facility, called a MIRF for Material Recovery Facility, will use conveyors, robotic equipment and workers to separate milk jugs from plastic soda bottles, green glass from clear glass and aluminum from other metals.

Construction of the MIRF is scheduled to begin in the summer of 1991, and the facility should open about one year later, Miller said.

The company selected to build and operate the center will be required to set up recycling collection systems as it builds the MIRF, so a supply of recyclable material will be established when the center opens, Miller said.

In the past two months, Miller has explained the regional recycling concept to governing bodies in the 11 localities that are members of the authority.

Miller said he received an "expression of interest" - which the authority needed to proceed with the project - from each member of the group, which consists of the cities of Newport News, Hampton, Williamsburg and Poquoson, and the counties of York, James City, Mathews, Middlesex, King and Queen, King William and Essex. Gloucester County is expected to be admitted to the authority in February.

Localities will be asked to commit money and recyclable waste to the MIRF after bids are received and exact costs are known, Miller said.

The authority board, which has a member from each locality, is trying to decide how costs and profits, if any, will be split between the cities and counties, some of which produce much more garbage than others.

Under one option, a locality would simply be charged for the cost of processing recyclable material brought from that city or county to the recycling center, and profits would be distributed accordingly, Miller said. Two other options would provide incentives for localities to recycle as much as possible by requiring flat fees for use of the center or by tying costs and profits to recycling goals for each community.

If all localities participate, the facility will be about 42,000 square feet. Miller said a smaller facility could be operated if some localities do not participate, but he said he hopes "the advantages of this would be such that that is not an option."

Together, the localities can keep costs down by producing high-quality waste material in a quantity that is attractive to private industry, according to Miller and James Funk, chairman of the York Board of Supervisors. Companies that transform recyclable garbage into usable products prefer a large, steady supply of material that is properly sorted.

Funk, who has complained publicly that the state is forcing localities to recycle without trying to attract recycling-related industries, said York would like to attract clean "spinoff" industries that would convert recyclable material into other products.

Plastic jugs and bottles, for example, can be turned into new containers or a variety of other items including park benches and fence posts. Used cardboard can be made into more cardboard.

The state, which requires localities to reduce the amount of garbage going into landfills by 25 percent before 1995, "has not done its job for us" because it has not tried to attract recycling spinoffs, Funk said.

Funk added that his interest in the center is primarily environmental.

"I don't look at the recycling center as making much money," he said. "I'm more concerned with the hope that everybody will get involved in it."

The cost of recycling at the regional center versus the cost of putting garbage in a landfill cannot be determined precisely because it depends on market demand for recyclable material, according to a consultant's report to the authority. The comparison also depends upon unknown future costs of putting garbage in local or regional landfills.